Thursday, October 13, 2011

Report suggests Android app downloads will overtake iPhone by summer

June 2012 is the date that monthly Android App downloads will exceed monthly iOS app downloads says Xyologic, a German company that indexes both the Android Market and iOS App Store. Currently, iOS has about 1.45 billion downloads each month, while Android has 640 million. Assuming Android continues its meteoric rise and iOS's growth stabilizes, both platforms will have a staggering 3.2 billion downloads per month in June 2012. At this point, Android will begin to eclipse iOS. Xyologic also predicts Android will surpass iOS in the total number of downloads sometime in mid-2013.

Predictions like this are fun to ponder, but you have to remember they are based on the assumption that Android will continue to climb exponentially and iOS will slow down slightly. This may not be the case. Google is increasingly facing legal action over Android and is rumored to have delayed the rollout of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich due to patent issues. If Google is stymied from introducing important upgrades in a timely manner, then it will not have the momentum to surpass iOS.